You might not see a connection between volunteering at a local food bank and helping grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa, but for members of the Grandmothers Advocacy Network (GRAN) that connection is real.
This volunteer organization has evolved a lot as part of a national grandmothers’ movement formed, in the mid-2000s, in solidarity with grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa who lost children to the AIDS epidemic and became responsible for raising millions of orphaned grandchildren.
GRAN’s roots lie in the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. From the campaign’s beginnings, grassroots groups of grandmothers and women who aren’t grandmothers (called “grand-others”) across Canada have dedicated themselves to raising awareness about the AIDS crisis and raising funds to support the grandmothers of sub-Saharan Africa. Canadian grandmothers have also raised their voices in advocacy to change federal policies and increase international assistance to improve the lives of these African grandmothers and their families.
In 2011, the advocacy arm of the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign established itself as an independent organization, taking on the name Grandmothers Advocacy Network or, simply, GRAN. Many GRAN members are also members of a Grandmothers to Grandmothers group.
Since its beginnings, GRAN has taken on policy issues aimed at having a positive impact on the lives of these grandmothers and their families in sub-Saharan Africa. In response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, an early advocacy campaign aimed to change Canadian legislation to improve access to affordable generic medicines to get much-needed HIV medicines to those in the Global South.
GRAN’s ongoing work focuses on the human rights of older women and issues related to health, education, violence against women, climate justice and mining justice. GRAN chooses one issue to focus on each year. Last year it was food insecurity and this year, as an extension of that, it’s child hunger.
Local GRAN groups are encouraged to undertake activities that address food insecurity and child hunger in their own communities, while also advocating for changes that will improve the situation for the grandmothers and children of sub-Saharan Africa and across the Global South.
This is what brought members of Pat Evans’ GRAN group down to the Daily Food Bank in Toronto. A group of eight GRANs helped out for the day, packing up food boxes. Evans said it was one of those learning experiences that she has come to love about being a member of GRAN.
Pat has been involved with GRAN since the early days. She was inspired by Stephen Lewis’s impassioned messages about the HIV/AIDS crisis and his admiration for the strength of Africa’s grandmothers. Pat had recently retired as a professor in the School of Social Work at Carleton University where she had taught advocacy for many years, but she had never been involved at a grassroots level. Joining GRAN gave her a chance to try it for herself.
“I’d never been so involved with a group that was so committed, smart, co-operative, so eager and who worked so well together,” says Pat.
Cathy Thompson, a GRAN member who lives in Ottawa and is a current co-chair of GRAN, also had never been involved in advocacy before joining GRAN. Prior to retiring, she was a French immersion teacher for most of her career. She, too, was inspired by Stephen Lewis’s work and joined GRAN in 2018. Since then, she has enjoyed the learning aspect of the work and has also done things she never thought she would, such as marching in the Toronto Pride Parade in 2022.
“It lets me contribute,” says Cathy. “Being part of a community of passionate and committed women gives me hope in a crazy world.” Cathy spent her life teaching children and says that when she retired, she wanted to get involved in something different.
“What I like is that it has been a great learning experience. There are areas you know nothing about and GRAN is so good at providing the background information so you can learn more about it,” she says.
One of the aspects that both volunteers have found beneficial is that GRAN works with partner organizations such as Results Canada and Cooperation Canada. Recently, GRAN celebrated with other civil society organizations when the Government of Canada announced $675M in funding for global immunization, which will prevent an estimated nine million deaths by 2030.
“There is real strength in these partnerships. Since we have no paid staff, it is beneficial to work with others, since it increases the impact,” Pat says
Having volunteered with GRAN for almost 20 years, Pat continues to be involved because it gives her a sense of satisfaction and it’s fun. “This is really working on something that makes a difference,” she points out. “There is also the underlying idea that we ought to have fun while we’re doing it.”
